Emergency vehicles outside the home where two pit bulls killed Bessie Flowers.
Victim Identified
UPDATE 03/28/16: The victim has been identified as 86-year old Bessie Flowers. Police have identified the attacking dogs as two American pit bull terriers. Both animals were properly licensed and vaccinated. Police confirmed they were called to the same address in April 2013 regarding a complaint about two aggressive dogs; no other details were provided. WSOC-TV also reports that the homeowners association is now considering banning pit bulls in the community going forward.
The same male neighbor who spoke to Time Warner Cable News is also in the WSOC-TV video footage. "There have been two incidents with those dogs," said the man who did not want to be identified. "They attacked other dogs here. No one has done anything about it. I constantly told people that they are going to kill someone," he said. That is exactly what the dogs did too. It is unknown if the earlier incidents were reported to police. So far officials have not addressed this.
Evening Updates
In an evening update by WBTV, circumstances leading up to the deadly attack were included. Flowers had been on the back deck of the townhome and was heading back inside when she slipped or tripped onto a dog bed. Her daughter's two pit bulls approached Flowers while she was on the floor and "apparently" began playing with her, which quickly escalated into a full-scale attack, said a police source. The dogs executed the killing bite, attacking her neck and head.
Flowers' daughter was able to separate the dogs and call for help. A portion of the 911 call was released to the media. Heavily breathing, the daughter said, "This is an emergency. My dogs attacked, they really hurt her. Please come!" When police arrived, Flowers was deceased on the floor, Captain Todd Lontz said. After seeing her own pit bulls attack and kill her mother, the daughter refused to sign the dogs over to officials, so animal control officers seized them.
03/28/16: Family Dogs Kill Woman
Charlotte, NC - An 86-year old woman was attacked and killed by two dogs while visiting a family member's home in south Charlotte. The victim, whose name has not been released, suffered "fatal dog bite injuries" and was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. WBTV reports that the woman was visiting her daughter's townhome on the 3200 block of Luke Crossing when the lethal attack occurred. Captain Todd Lontz confirmed that the dogs involved "are actually family dogs."
"Sources say the woman suffered injuries to the neck and lost a substantial amount of blood." - WBTV, March 28, 2016
At this stage, police have not named the breeds of dogs involved, but neighbors told WBTV that the homeowner was "always walking two pit bulls on leashes." Photographs taken by WCCB confirm that both dogs are pit bulls, specifically red nose pit bulls. The Charlotte Observer reports that a neighbor said both dogs -- a male and female -- and their female owner had lived in the area for several years and at one point had served on the community's homeowners association.
Time Warner Cable News briefly spoke to an unidentified neighbor who was clearly upset. "[The pit bulls] attacked another dog two times and no one ever did anything about it," he said. "They never attacked a person, but they attacked two dogs." The footage also shows police gathered outside of the home where the woman was attacked and neighbors or possibly family members near the home's front door. CMPD’s Animal Care and Control took both pit bulls into custody.
Fifth Fatal Pit Bull Attack
This still unnamed elderly victim is the third fatal pit bull attack in North Carolina since January 2016 and the fifth since July 2015, when 6-year old Joshua Strother was fatally attacked by a pit bull that was adopted out three weeks earlier by the Asheville Humane Society. These victims include: Suzanne Story, 36, of Perquimans County, Talan West, 7, of Robeson County, Cathy Wheatcraft, 48, of Davie County and Joshua Strother, 6, of Henderson County, North Carolina.
View the DogsBite.org Google State Map: North Carolina Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.
Related articles:
02/12/16: 2016 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Killed by Pet Pit Bull in Perquimans County, NC
03/05/16: 2016 Dog Bite Fatality: Pit Bull Kills Child, Injures Another in Lumberton, North Carolina
08/25/15: 2015 Dog Bite Fatality: Pit Bull Kills Woman, Injures Another in Davie County...
08/06/15: 2015 Dog Bite Fatality: Recently Adopted Out Pit Bull Kills 6-Year Old Boy...
05/05/09: Alexandra Semyonova: Heritability of Behavior in the Abnormally Aggressive Dog
Was this a breeding pair? The one on the left looks pregnant. It is my understanding that intact / in-heat / breeding pit bulls are more aggressive than usual.
Great idea – lets breed pit bulls in a townhouse development where just about everything EXCEPT dogs are probably banned.
Inquiring minds would like to know a few things about this case:
– were there any complaints about the supermaulers prior to the incident in question?
– What do the community bylaws specify in regards to pet ownership? In particular, any regulations relating to the size of pet / dogs and the number of same.
– Has this breeding pair produced any junior supermaulers, and if so… where are they now? Have any offspring created a nuisance or safety issue at this location or anywhere else?
– Are these people insane?
From the WBTV article: "WBTV has learned that the dogs' owner, the victim's daughter, didn't want to sign the dogs over – so animal control officers seized the dogs."
Pit bulls kill your mother, but you refuse to hand them over to police. Can a sane person imagine it? This certainly affirms what the anonymous dog trainer wrote in an earlier post here:
"They [people who love pit bulls] They don’t care about anyone or anything but those dogs. They will throw their own family and friends under a bus to protect these dogs. It’s like some bizarre sickness overcomes them and rational realistic thought, compassion — anything human — just vaporizes in them."
https://blog.dogsbite.org/2016/03/experienced-dog-trainer-shares-dog-attack-story.html
I hope that people reading today will understand that they shouldn't visit even their own children if those children own pit bulls. The risk is too high that those children too will refuse to hand over the pit bull/s as they look at you dead on their living room floor, already making plans to bring the pit bulls to your funeral.
Animal control has blood on its hands.
They did nothing about these known aggressive dogs and what happened? They killed
One of the prime markers for future deadly maulings by pit bulls is aggression toward other animals.
They should have been classified as dangerous and had court-ordered controls and restrictions so that people and pets were protected, or more properly, they should have been euthanized
But animal control helped the vicious dogs and the owner of those vicious dogs, which is opposite to their public safety roles
I beg people, you must get involved in local animal control issues. You must demand strong laws, and enforcement. You must demand a dangerous dog system that is tough and that steps in before the attacks happen. You must demand zero tolerance for strays and loose dogs. You must demand strong reporting and documentation. You must demand breeder licensing.
Or the deaths will keep increasing.
HORRIBLE:
"WBTV has learned that the dogs' owner, the victim's daughter, didn't want to sign the dogs over – so animal control officers seized the dogs."
—
http://www.kswo.com/story/31581065/elderly-woman-killed-by-pit-bulls-while-visiting-south-charlotte-home-idd
Yesterday, on the opposite side of Charlotte, I called animal control about yet another pit bull that was wandering freely around my neighborhood. I had no idea what animal control was doing on the other side of town, around the same time.
I left a comment on the story of Cathy Wheatcraft (link in story) about a year ago, I've got nothing more to add to that comment.
Does this insane owner have children in the home?! If so Child Protective Services should be investigating. If she gets her dogs back the neighbors should get to get together and sue AC, and put an end to those freaking killers.
That fact that this woman's dogs brutally murdered her mother and she wouldn't sign them over to animal control is what disgusts me the most. Pit nutters who chose their pets over their family infuriate me. How could anyone do that to their mother, or relative for that matter?
If Ms. Bessie Flowers was like my mother she was the woman who birthed this girl, cared for her, fed her, loved her, comforted her when she cried, probably wanted to give her nearly everything her heart desired, sent her to school to get and education, and probably did everything she could for them.
And what a way to show her mother how grateful she was. What a way to express her love for her after her death. What a way to show how she valued her. Repulsive.
I seriously don't know what kind of sick, twisted mind pit nutters have that they can actually look at a dog, THEIR dog, that MURDERED their loved one (blood and shredded skin all over their muzzles, staining their floors) and have any other emotion towards that beast other than complete utter revulsion and abhorrence. I just can't fathom it.
And again…and the daughter didn't want to give up the dogs, naturally.